The Meaning of a Star
by Ioli Ophelia
Summary: Christmas One shot, The importance of star tree topper to a five year old Harry.


_A/N: Here's a little Christmas hope and comfort… sort of….honestly not sure what to call it…_

_I hope you enjoy and review, if you don't… review anyways and tell me. _

_P.S I am working on new chapters for my other stories too so don't worry. XOXOX Merry_ Christmas _or if your one of the people who need me to say this instead… HAPPY HOLIDAYS! To one and all. _

**The Meaning of a Star**

Once upon a winter in Surry England, there was a five year old boy whose name was Harry James Potter. He was such a small young boy and it was hard to think that he being one so young was already exposed to the cruelties of the world. He was much too young one would think, to desire the freedom that winter cold offered so easily. Winters were easily the worst months of the child's life. It was the three months in the year when his life was devoid of all warmth's that his young meager life usually had in the warmer seasons. In the warmer seasons young Harry could feel occasionally warm sun upon his skin.

That soft brush of warmth on his skin was his proof that there was something better somewhere out there. It may not be there with him… but somewhere far away in the times of spring and summer, there was that place faraway that reached out and it gave him a sun kiss to let him know that it was still there, that it existed somewhere and it was waiting for him.

In the winter however…. That place, the place that offered a small hope to the young child disappeared. Just like the warmth of the spring and summer sun. In the winter it was easy for the little child to lose hope as the days grew colder and darker. It was in the winter when Harry truly saw how sad and lonesome his life truly was.

Now Harry wasn't alone in his home, nor did he have a quiet life like it would seem from the words you have read. Harry's family was loud and often was always doing something or another. His Aunt Petunia was a prudish woman who was almost always concerned on her appearance and was always fussing over her oversized son Dudley. Cousin Dudley was an uncomplicated five almost six year old. He had three basic states of being. One, eating everything he can get his hands on. Two, having a tantrum so he can get his hands on something to eat. And Three…. Blaming Harry for every unfortunate event that happened in the household so he could watch and repeat one and two. If those two weren't bad then Uncle Vernon was. His basic functions were eat everything in sight, play perfect family so he could seem as normal as possible and punishing Harry for all of Dudley's accusations so he could make the orphan boy a normal citizen in society.

As you can see it is easy to see how unquiet the poor boys life was. It was unfortunately his misfortune to be placed in such a home, but it was what had occurred on one sad October end upon the deaths of his parents. It was a dreadful night and the poor boy most likely never truly forget it. He would always remember the fear and the agonising heart stopping scream his mother had produced as she stood protecting her only child. After all it was a sight one would never forget. You could tell the poor child remembered, from once a boisterous babbling baby filled with joy and curiosity turned into after the incident into a quiet child who rarely made a sound. Not that his current environment all that encouraging for anything else.

It was now four years later since he was placed in the cold home of his relatives. He was now the young age of five and it wasn't hard to spot the difference between he and his cousin. Where one child was dressed in the best of the best, the little Harry Potter was dressed in old thin rags. Where one child rested and played all day the other was sent out in the lavish home to clean and cook. Where one child had the best room that the world had to offer a child the other slept in a dirty cupboard beneath the stairs. Where one child was always comfortable and happy the other was hurt and aching and in agony.

It was a sad fate for someone so young.

Some evenings when the lights were all out and Harry was curled up in the small cupboard beneath the stairs he would open his deep green eyes and stare at the shadows. He would imagine a different life. A life in the place of the sun kisses.

The place of sun kisses he would imagine, was a land filled with soft green grass and sweet pure air, not the kind of stale dusty stuff that he breathed in every day. He would imagine what the buildings would look like in the land of sun kisses, perhaps a golden castle surrounded by a moat or a lake with a small town below. The town would be peaceful and filled with happy and peaceful people who were all close and were like a big family. There would be singing birds a kind wild animals that lived in the nearby woods that would play with him. He would be adopted into a loving family with a mother who kissed his head and gave him real hot meals and a father who patted his back and taught him how to be a man. Maybe he would even have a sibling to play with who would explore the world of sun kiss with him. He would think of amazing adventures and lives for himself during the time when he would look at the shadows of his cubby. It was hard not to even though he knew at the time, that when light returned to his little room only the cold world that he lived in was there and his sun kissed world was nothing but a dream.

In the time of spring and summer the dreams of sun kiss was a daily occurrence. The dream brought hope and a small shard of happiness to the small child. The very thought of being whisked away to the special land made his breath hitch and his heart flutter as his throat threatened to overflow with the voice of hope. It was a powerful dream that he had, that only slept during one time of the year.

In the winter months when freezing rain and white snow fell, the dream would disappear with the warmth of the seasons. The dreams of sun kiss occurred less and less in the winter, the cold pulling the child into deep depression. The child would stop to smiling by the end of October and by November he would grow quiet. I suppose at this point it would seem like the poor child had nothing to hope for in this time and that was very much true until the middle of December when the Dursley family put up there Christmas tree. Every year he would watch his family decorate the tree smiling happily with the warmth of the Christmas spirit he had never felt. Every year he would be forced to cook and clean more than usual as well as be subjected to more taunts by his cousin. Most would think this would be more of a miserable time then the previous months; however, this month held his small flicker of hope. That small hope appeared every year when the Dursley's put up their fresh Christmas tree and decorated it by placing a very special item on top. Every year on top of the tree was a small sun kiss.

Whenever he looked at the glowing sun kiss at the top of the tree that small heart flutter retuned as he bravely kept his tears away as the small flicker of hope retuned.

Now I suppose you know now that the sun kiss atop of the tree really was a tree topper in the shape of a star, and to you it might not mean much but to Harry it was hope that his little world still existed. That there was somewhere far away that was warm and happy.

One evening on the child's fifth Christmas, when Harry was serving tea to his Aunt and Uncle his cousin Dudley decided it was a good idea to throw one of his many toys at the decorated tree in the living room when the toys plastic wheel had fallen off. To the green eyed child's utter horror, the flying toy knocked his sun kiss right from the top of the tree. Tears welled in his emerald eyes as he watched his precious shard of hope fall to its doom upon the shiny wooden floors of the Dursley living room. The sun kiss broke in three broken pieces.

Quivering the small five year old under the hard gazes of his relatives, picked up the broken ornament and cradled it with a look of devastation. With the room in silence the child looked up with shimmering green eyes filled with a sad lonely warmth. His eyes the only way to convey his hopelessness he dared to look up with an almost pleading look as his warm tears rolled down his pale cheeks only meet with three pairs of cold blue eyes that held the chilling blue of a frosty winter storm.

His Aunt pursed her lips in that disapproving manner as she kept her cold eyes on her only nephew. His Uncle watched with his usual dumbfounded look as his son mimicked his look perfectly unsure whether to cry and blame it on the freak or to vocalise his curiosity at the younger boy's tears. Out of all the times Dudley had terrorised his cousin, out of all the times his parents punished the small child by withholding food or forcing chore after chore not once did the boy cry. Sure he complained once or twice sometimes even whined or begged, but not once did he shed a tear before them. The sight to them was truly mystifying. They weren't sure what to do with it.

With a shaky breath the boy walked to his stunned relatives holding his precious sun kiss. Standing before the small family he held out the piece he looked at them with a pleading gaze as he spoke in a soft quivering voice. "P-please f-fix it."

It had taken the three other people in the room a moment to fully understand what the small boy had requested. Once the moment was over the Aunt raised a brow as she mulled over the request as the Uncle took the pieces carefully from the child looking over the pieces judiciously, simply because he too was puzzled over the meaning of the simple ornament to the child he had reluctantly took into his home. Dudley simply for once kept quiet unsure of what to say or demand as he stared at his younger cousin in confusion. Out of all things for his cousin to cry over he cried over a stupid glass star.

Petunia had watched her sister's child with a scrutinizing look as she watched him cry as he handed over the fragmented tree topper. It was a curious reaction not that she was interested at all, and I am sure if you had asked her if she was at all in any way interested she would deny it to her death bed. People are funny that way I suppose, feeling something and denying such when it would have been so much easier so say or do what your heart meant for you to. Petunia was that type of person. She was a hard women to her little nephew simply because he was something in her life that represented loss and memories all at the same time. That little child was the last thing of her precious sister who she declared she hated even when her heart ached for her every day. That little child whom she treated like an outsider and a servant was housed in a small part of her heart where she treasured him secretly. The part was small and was never nurtured simply because one day, no matter how much she let herself love or hate him that little green eyed boy who reminded her of her younger sister so much, would leave her… To a world she could never reach. He would leave and move on. It was best she left him and gave him the will and the strength, the fight to survive unlike how her pampered sister.

Petunia did know it was cruel but her jealous, grudge keeping nature made it easier to give her nephew the life he had. Some would say what happened next was proof that the woman's heart wasn't all bad, nor was it completely one dimensional when it came to the green eyed child.

With an almost troubled sigh the middle aged woman looked at her husband, tearing her gaze from the crying child. "Well? Can it be fixed?" she demanded with a primp voice. As soon as her question ended the large man looked at his wife with almost a confused expression, almost if he was going to ask why she would want such a thing repaired when he could just buy a new one. Knowing better then to question the women he simply grunted as he adjusted his bulk in his seat and answered in a nonchalant tone. "With some adhesive I'm sure it would be fine Pet."

With the two children watching silently Petunia replied in an even tone. "Then fix it, it was a gift." Petunia had sniffed after she spoke, as if it were an insult someone had given her an item that was easily broken. Vernon being the man he was, in his opinion a smart one, simply nodded and without a word pulled himself out of his large chair to waddle to the garage to fix the simple tree topper.

It had taken not twenty minutes before Vernon had stumbled back into the living room where three quiet occupants were sitting silently. Petunia had Dudley on her lap as he played for once quietly while the small green eyed child sat on the carpet near the tree just as silent with dried tears on his cheeks as he patiently waited for his sun kiss. When the obese man entered the room, all three individuals looked up at the man holding the repaired tree topper. With an important sounding grumble the man stalked towards his wife and son. He gave them a smug look as he showed his wife and child, who both looked at it and smiled, now ignoring the other child who was watching with a careful emerald stare. Petunia nodded satisfied before speaking in her shrill demanding voice, "Well put it on the tree then!"

Vernon like before simply nodded obediently, fully believing the philosophy, happy wife happy life. As the man moved he had observed the boy watching the star closely, such a curious thing. To be attached to an unimportant item. Choosing to ignore the child for the moment he dragged a cream colored stool over to the tree and stepped up daring the item to hold his heavy weight. It took only a moment for him to balance himself before he carefully replaced the Christmas item on the top of the tree. After he was finished Vernon stepped off the straining furniture piece and looked up satisfied. "There all up and fixed." He declared. He looked over at his wife noticing the satisfied look as well as his son's childish look of glee. Daring himself to, the man looked over at the small boy in the corner of the room and he froze. For on the boy's face was a look he didn't recognize.

In the corner of the room Harry had watched him place the sun kiss high up above where it was previously before it was knocked down to the wooded floors. He could feel the gazes of his relatives on him but he couldn't bring himself to care for that one moment. As he gazed at his sun kiss he lips twitched and formed a small smile as his eyes shimmered with emotion that seemed to be too big for a five year old to hold in its small body. As soon as the sun kiss returned to its height he had felt his heart fluttering return. He felt the small hope warm, as the sun kiss was raised up high far behind his reach. It was his proof of the other land. It was his proof that the other world was real, and not even his relives could take it away.

It was in this small moment where the Dursley's showed they were normal human beings. It was in this one moment that the Dursley's did something that meant the world to a sad little boy. They restored his hope of reaching his sun kissed land.

Though the moment was precious and meaningful, it was only a single moment, for in the next moment everything had returned to what had been before the falling of the sun kiss. It had started with Dudley before the Aunt and Uncle had returned to their normal routine.

"Mummy I want some cookies!" the tubby child had demanded. The strict looking woman merely looked at her nephew as her husband made himself comfortable once again in his chair. As Petunia looked at her nephew superiorly she called him in a clipped tone "Boy!"

The child in question immediately stood and looked up returning to his usual attitude knowing the moment was over. "Yes Aunt Petunia?" He asked softly as he stepped closer.

The woman merely sniffed once again. "You heard Diddy, More cookies and make more tea! It's cold now." She demanded the young child.

Harry nodded. "Yes Aunt Petunia." He said softly before turning to complete his usual tasks, giving his sun kiss one last look before leaving the room.

His life maybe sad now, and some days are filled with aches and pains. It may be cold and dark some days and the loneliness can be breath taking. But that star, and the warmth of the sun were all proof that one day…

Someday…

His life would change and he would be taken away to the land of Sun Kiss, a place where it was warm. Sun kiss would give him a place where he would have a real family who would love him for him. A place where his loneliness would end, a place where he would smile and laugh lots and lots.

Sun Kiss, A place where he couldn't wait to reach.

A/N: Please Read and Review and once again hope you all have a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!


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